


Double Duty

by Kaoru_chibimaster



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Established Relationship, Humor, M/M, noctis gift exchange
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-21
Updated: 2018-05-21
Packaged: 2019-05-09 22:52:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14725112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaoru_chibimaster/pseuds/Kaoru_chibimaster
Summary: Ignis is acting pretty…weird, and Noctis is all but pulling his hair out at the behavior. He really ought to find out what’s going on.





	Double Duty

**Author's Note:**

  * For [PrinceSnoozy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrinceSnoozy/gifts).



> So when I first started filling this prompt, I had the basic idea of a cute, lovey-dovey Ignoct thing…but then it occurred to me how many different reasons Ignis could have for acting weird and I kinda rolled with it. So this exists now. I apologize for my bad humor.

Ignis was hiding something.

Noctis knew damn well that his advisor wasn’t in a meeting with the king…because Noctis himself was in a meeting with the king. Well, more like a tensely silent dinner, what with Noctis glaring at his phone as his father not-so-discreetly eyed him in curiosity. They’d been in the middle of a conversation –something mundane about how Noctis was doing, if he was eating right, if he was sleeping well– when Noctis’ response died on his lips. He’d pulled out his phone absentmindedly, glancing over the text notification on the screen, and had almost set it down again before doing a double take.

Right there. On the screen. A blatant lie.

Not that Noctis was nosy enough in Ignis’ life to need to know what he was doing every minute of every hour of every day…but he appreciated knowing he could trust Ignis enough give him truthful explanations as to why he wouldn’t be picking Noctis up or coming over to make sure Noctis didn’t need anything. This was…

Sloppy.

That was the more worrying aspect of it, the fact that not only did Ignis tell a bold-faced lie, he didn’t even check to make sure his alibi wouldn’t be contradicted. Sure, the dinner itself was impromptu. His dad called him up while he was out and told him about a meeting that had been cancelled due to clashing schedules and miscommunication, and so he had the free time to share a meal with his son. It wasn’t as if Ignis would have expected this, because honestly no one would have expected this, but he still would have at least texted Noctis, or Gladio, or _someone_ to make sure the king wasn’t with Noctis beforehand. What was Ignis up to that he let himself slip up that badly?

Frowning, Noctis shoved his phone back in his pocket and picked his way through the rest of his plate. He wasn’t even sure where to begin with this, but it was off-putting enough that not even a dinner with his father could cheer him up from it.

Which put him in an awkward position because he was, in fact, still eating dinner with said father.

“…Should I ask?” the king finally questioned, eyebrow raised.

Noctis peeked up at him from under his hair, hoping he hid his mild irritation well enough.

“No, it’s not imp—it’s nothing,” he managed to stutter out without sounding too glum.

Clearly this tactic did not work on fathers.

“Is it really? You’re pouting as if someone kicked your dog.”

“I wouldn’t pout if someone kicked my dog. I’d beat the shit out of them.”

“Don’t avoid the subject, Noctis.”

Tch. Here he thought he’d get a lecture on proper language at the dinner table. Well, no, who was he kidding. His dad was just as bad.

“It’s Ignis…” Noctis finally trailed off, shrugging one shoulder. He thought he’d be able to pass off how he felt about being _lied to_ of all things by _Ignis_ of all people, but he wasn’t even convincing to himself.

“Is he alright?” the king asked, and a worried look flashed across his face.

“Yeah, I guess.” Because Noctis wouldn’t really know. If anything, his dad should know. Seeing as Ignis was in a meeting with the king.

His frown deepened.

“Right, well you’re making faces for no reason then, and Ignis is clearly hunky dory. Thank you for explaining things to me, Noctis; I don’t know what I’d do without your fruitful insight.”

Noctis rolled his eyes at that. “Look, I don’t know what’s going on. He just told me he’s in a meeting, alright?”

“And why has this made you upset?”

“…Because he’s in a meeting with you.”

Understanding became Regis’ expression then, as he sat back out of his interrogative posture.

“Ah.”

“Mhm.”

“…Lover’s spat?”

Damn, he’d never escape the teasing over that. “ _No_.”

The grin on King Regis’ lips only lasted for a split second.

“I can’t imagine many reasons why Ignis would hide what he’s really doing from you, but I would advise you leave it be for now. The both of you have spent most of your lives together. It’s not so farfetched that he might want to keep something to himself.”

Which was nice and all (really, because Noctis encouraged Ignis not to focus so much energy on him, advisor, boyfriend or otherwise) but the secrecy was as jarring as it was unnecessary. They didn’t spend every waking moment together. It wasn’t as if Noctis didn’t allow Ignis to have a life–and really that wasn’t up to Noctis in the first place, as far as he was concerned. Royalty be damned, Noctis wasn’t going to be the reason a twenty one year old man couldn’t go out and enjoy his life. He was as unlikely as any to judge Ignis for his personal hobbies either, seeing as he already knew what most of them were anyway. He couldn’t imagine why Ignis would need to hide what he was doing.

Which begged the question as to how long this had been going on, the more Noctis thought about it. How many ‘meetings’ had Ignis had that weren’t really meetings?

“You’re over thinking this, you know.”

“Am I?” Noctis asked, this time his own eyebrow raised.

“I can see the gears turning in your head. I know Ignis. Hell, _you_ know Ignis. He’s unlikely to be up to anything dangerous or incriminating. Let him have his secrets. Everyone does.” As an afterthought, he added, “Aulea did.”

Right. Noctis’ mother, the kindest queen in recent Lucian history, had deep, dark secrets. “Like what?”

The king looked…disturbingly severe when he answered.

“You really don’t want to know.”

Okay. So that was comforting.

“Not helping, Dad.”

“Oh they were harmless secrets, really. But I don’t want to taint the vision you have of your mother. Let her remain pure in your mind.”

“And this is veering into ‘too much information’ territory.”

“It’s also, again, off-topic. But I don’t think there’s much more to be discussed. So Ignis isn’t telling you the whole story. Do you share everything with him?”

Well…no. But Noctis never felt the need to. Odds were, Ignis either already knew or quickly figured it out. There wasn’t much Noctis could hide from the man. There…wasn’t much he wanted to.

“I’ll leave it alone…” But he still reserved the right to be worried. Who knew what Ignis thought was so bad that he felt the need to hide it was.

-o-

Noctis meant it when he said he’d leave it alone. At first.

And then things got weird.

“Dude, you’re gonna run a skid mark into your floor if you keep that up.”

‘That’ being the aggressive pacing Noctis had subjected his floorboards to. The cause? This time Ignis claimed to be training with Gladio…right as Gladio was leaving Noctis’ apartment after hanging around for half the afternoon. And what was worse! Typos! There were honest to gods typos in Ignis’ text!

This was the same man who was anal about spell checking refrigerator notes.

And where the hell was Ignis actually disappearing to on a goddamn _Thursday afternoon_?!

“This is just _weird_ , Prompto!”

“Uh huh.”

“It’s like, he’s trying so hard to hide whatever the hell he’s doing and he’s not even doing that well!”

“Yeah, you mentioned.”

“How are you so calm about this?! What if he, I don’t know, joined a band of vigilantes that fight crime in spandex?!”

Prompto sighed, placing his phone down so he could sit up from where he’d been laid out over Noctis’ couch. Rolling his eyes good naturedly, he stood so that he could place his hands on his best friend’s shoulders reassuringly.

“Bro, I think you’re a little too wigged out about this. I’ll bet he’s just trying to do something special for you and doesn’t want you to find out. Maybe it’s like, an anniversary thingy?”

“Except our anniversary was two months ago and nothing else special is happening right now,” Noctis sighed.

On top of that, Noctis knew how Ignis got about special things. He became overly straight faced to the point where it was conspicuous that he was planning something. This was…

He really didn’t know what this was.

“Well, if you’re so worried, why don’t you just ask?”

“Right, because obviously he’ll tell me right on the spot why he’s been lying about where he is.” Unprompted, at that. Noctis hadn’t even asked.

“Hey, you never know! Maybe he’s being obvious on purpose.”

Huh. Well, Prompto might have been on to something there. Ignis was the type of person to try and put more meaning into his actions than what was surface level. Maybe he wanted Noctis to notice that he was acting weird.

“Good point,” Noctis nodded. “I’ll ask him when he gets home.”

And that was exactly what he did. It wasn’t long after Prompto left –only twenty or so minutes– that Ignis came home looking for all the world perfectly normal. Not a hair out of place or a blemish on his skin. No scuffed clothing, no weird marks or stains. His glasses were on perfectly straight. He even raised his eyebrow in that familiar manner as Noctis circled him, inspecting him from head to toe.

“I assume I am up to your standards, Your Highness?” he asked, a sarcastic note to his tone. Noctis paid it no mind, instead stepping up into Ignis’ personal space to begin the interrogation.

“Why are you acting so weird?” he asked straight out. Tactless, others would call it. Getting to the point was what he called it.

“I hadn’t realized I was acting anything other than normal, Noct.”

Right. No eyebrow twitch. No muscle along his jaw jumping. No shifting eyes, in fact he held perfect eye contact. Not even his breathing changed.

Noctis wasn’t going to take that at face value. Ignis could be a damn good liar when he actually tried.

Which led back to the topic at hand.

“Don’t even try that with me. Wanna tell me how you were training with Gladio when he was over here crashing on my couch?”

Ignis didn’t miss a beat. “I admit I hadn’t realized that my network was turned off for a longer time than permissible. I assume it did send when I turned it back on?”

“Why was it off?”

A perfect eyebrow raise yet again. “You do know cellphone communication is not allowed in the meeting hall, do you not?”

Of course Noctis knew that. That’s why he turned on king’s knight when he got bored during a meeting instead of texting Prompto. Hey, in his defense, he did pay attention during the important parts. He only tuned out when the council started talking itself in circles.

That was beside the point, however.

“And what about last week when you told me you were buying us ingredients for dinner and came home empty handed? Or the week before when you supposedly had a meeting with my dad while I was eating dinner with him?”

“I had thought that I would be having a meeting with the king until I was informed that he cancelled all further meetings to have a meal with you. By that point I had already sent the text. And anyway, weren’t you the one who was spamming innuendos at me over text while I was out, and then telling me to order take out so you could ‘have your way with—”

“Okay, okay, I get it!” He honestly hadn’t thought Ignis would actually listen to him in that situation. “But what about the typos? You’re never that sloppy when you text!”

For this last question, Ignis simply pulled out his phone and demonstrated through the messaging app exactly what was going on there. His screen must’ve been acting up with the way extra letters would be pushed alongside the ones Ignis intended.

“It was becoming a waste of time trying to correct this nonsense, and I figured you could at least understand the gist of what I was saying.”

Damn. “You need a new phone.”

“Taken care of,” Ignis responded smoothly. “It was custom ordered but it should be here in a day or two.”

Well. It looked like Noctis had no choice but to admit defeat. He still couldn’t help the itching feeling in the back of his head that told him something odd was going on, but in the face of Ignis’ cool logic, he couldn’t pinpoint it. Ignis seemed to notice Noctis was still watching him critically, shaking his head with a fond smile.

“I can assure you, Noct, there’s nothing to be worried about. Now, I’d like to shower before getting dinner started, if that’s alright with you,” he said, his smile turning wry before he pressed a kiss to Noctis’ lips and another to his temple. He headed towards the bathroom to do exactly that, while Noctis watched him. Still skeptical. Maybe he really was overthinking things. But he wanted to be sure.

He’d keep an eye out for another odd text. If it happened again, he’d make his move.

-o-

Of course, it happened again.

‘ _At Sentinel Hall with a few colleagues. I will be home by evening._ ’

Sentinel Hall was closed on Sundays.

Noctis’ eyes drifted to the date displayed on his phone. Sunday, July 17, 755. Something was up, and he was gonna have to figure out what it was.

He’d start at Sentinel Hall. Maybe he’d find a clue there.

With that in mind, he locked up his apartment and headed for one of the cars in the garage. As long as the crownsguard stationed at the building knew he was going out and where, they’d leave him be. He generally didn’t have a guard detail in the inner city where so many off-duty crownsguard and kingsglaive tended to spend their time, and Sentinel Hall happened to be smack in the middle of the city. The resident offshoot of the larger symphony hall, Cantatio, it was generally a practicing grounds for up and coming musicians. Not so odd to believe that Ignis would have acquaintances in the musical arts, but why would they be there on a Sunday instead of Cantatio, which was open every day of the week…

Something was definitely up.

Noctis only felt this confirmed further when he pulled into the empty parking lot, drifting slowly over the asphalt as he scanned the area. Pulling into a spot on the farthest end from the building, he stepped out of the car to inspect the area unhindered. Nothing.

Wait. No… There was something. But not in Sentinel. There were lights on in one of La Belle’s lower floors down the street. Not usually so odd for that particular skyscraper but…no other rooms had lights on in that floor level. Just the one.

It occurred to Noctis that he might be acting just a bit paranoid when he found himself warping to a ledge on a nearby shop. Was it creepy? Yeah, probably. No one followed their boyfriend to a symphony hall and then tried to spy on a building three blocks away with no clue if said boyfriend was anywhere near there unless they were trying to look like a stalker. Nor was being the prince proper justification for this behavior. Did Noctis care, however? No. He was being a nosy little bastard tonight and no one was going to tell him not to.

And so he dropped from the ledge and tried to sneak around the La Belle, hoping no one would look out of one of those windows and spot him there. The doorman, unsurprisingly, stared at him like he had two heads.

He’d have to do this the hard way.

“Hey,” he greeted the man awkwardly as he stood from his crouch. “Uh…can I go in?”

“…May I see your I.D.?” the man asked, still watching Noctis like he was expecting him to turn looney and flip his shit. Noctis, in fact, did not turn looney and flip his shit. Instead he pulled his old school identification card out of his ‘magical pocket’ (his dad thought it was an amusing name) in a quick flash of blue light. The card itself wasn’t necessary really, considering where Noctis had just pulled it from, and he was shuffled inside before the doorman could even finish bowing and sputtering out ‘your highness’s. Whatever, he guessed. It worked.

Of course, it wouldn’t really matter if Ignis actually wasn’t there.

Despite how this thought, and really the ridiculousness of the entire situation in general, started to eat at Noctis a bit…seriously, how’d he talk himself into this, there did at least seem to be a light at the end of the tunnel. Hallway. Either one. And with that light came answers. He hoped.

“Heard there was a robbery on Crown and Main, maybe we should try there next,” one muffled woman’s voice stated from the door to the room where light shone in the windows. It was shut tight, but whoever was inside felt comfortable enough talking at a normal enough volume that he could still hear them.

“We shouldn’t concern ourselves with small time stuff,” came another voice, this time male. They were only vaguely recognizable, as if he’d heard them on television or the radio at some point but couldn’t pinpoint them, but honestly whatever this was sounded juicy enough on its own that this information was easily logged in the back of his mind.

“Nonesense. Everyone deserves a fair chance. That’s why we started this.”

Whoa. Okay. Nope. That was definitely Ignis’ voice. And what in the hell was going on?! What did he start?!

The voices argued for a few more minutes, mostly over the benefits versus the drawbacks of getting involved in small petty crimes instead of notifying the police, before someone was finally fed up enough to jump straight into action.

“That’s it! We can spend all night arguing or we can go out and—” The guy who was speaking froze, cutting himself off midsentence as he opened the door to find an eavesdropping prince. Said eavesdropper, thinking quickly, flashed a crooked smile and wiggled his fingers in greeting. It didn’t really help.

“Okay, either I’m high or the Prince of Lucis is standing right outside the door.”

“What?” the woman’s voice asked before she too stepped into the doorway and revealed herself. “That’s crazy, he wouldn’t be—holy shit, it’s the prince.”

A few more heads popped into Noctis’ view before the one he wanted to see finally appeared.

“Noct…?”

“Uh…Hey, Iggy. Got your text…” Noctis said, waving absently at his pocket where his phone lay. The greater part of his attention was focused on the group in front of him. He did in fact know every single one of these people. It was no wonder he recognized their voices. They were council-in-training, young nobles and politicians that Noctis often saw at parties and gatherings in the Citadel. These would be the people helping him rule Lucis when his time to ascend the throne came.

So what the fuck were they doing conspiring in an empty floor of La Belle?

“…What’s going on here?”

There was a beat of silence as Ignis seemed to contemplate actually answering.

“I’d wondered when you’d figure it out,” Ignis finally said, stepping forward. He exited into the hallway and shut the door, sending looks to his ‘colleagues’ that Noctis couldn’t quite identify, before facing the prince fully. “Smart as you are, I doubted any of this went over your head. You’d proven it when you confronted me.”

…What.

“I had hoped, however,” Ignis continued. “That you would simply write it off instead of following me. I knew you’d grow more suspicious if I didn’t give you excuses as to why I was getting in late, and so I tried to appease you in hopes you’d leave it be. This presents a bit of a problem.”

“A problem? _What problem_ , Ignis?! What the hell is going on?!”

“Well… the younger generations of Insomnia aren’t blind. Your father works hard to ensure we’re all safe behind the wall, but sometimes the issues lie within. And they can be just as nasty as outside threats. You often contribute for the good of the city by performing volunteer work and giving to charities, but a few of the councilmen’s children and I had decided to take a more… _direct_ approach.”

… _What??_

“Specs, just tell it to me straight! What are you guys up to?” Noctis asked outright, eyes wide. It wasn’t as if he was blind to the problems within the city, far from it, but he couldn’t imagine what approach Ignis and the others were taking that involved _holing up in La Belle_.

“I mean…” a sigh from Ignis before finally, “We’ve formed a small band that administers disciplinary action towards those such that blatantly disobey the law and manage to elude or escape internment for their transgressions.”

Holy shit. “Don’t tell me you’re actually part of a vigilante group that fights crime in spandex.”

“What? We don’t do it in spandex, that’s nonsense.”

If Lucian princes could spontaneously combust, Noctis was sure he’d be a charred spot on the wall right now.

“Are you fucking kidding me?! All of this is nonsense!”

Ignis flinched a bit at that.

“I didn’t realize it would be nonsense to want to help people.”

Instead of combusting, Noctis settled for nearly pulling his hair out.

“No, I don’t mean that! I mean the lying, and the typos, and the weird disappearances! And the fact that you didn’t think you could fucking tell me you were doing something this badass!”

The surprised expression that crossed Ignis’ face didn’t help much.

“Well I thought…I hadn’t realized you—”

Oh that was cute. He didn’t think Noctis would approve.

“What, did you suddenly forget I’m the biggest nerd of the Caelum dynasty? Of course I don’t have a problem with it! Hell, it’s technically illegal hijacking the police’s job like this, so if anything I’m your best bet for helping to keep you guys out of trouble,” Noctis huffed, pulling his fingers out of his hair as he dropped his arms.

“You’ll have to forgive me if none of the others here were comfortable with telling the prince we were performing illegal vigilante work,” Ignis sighed. Hand on his hip, Noctis only rolled his eyes.

“Then stop treating me like a prince all the damn time. Hell, you don’t when we’re alone. What’s the problem now? It’s not exactly like this is a formal event.”

“No, I suppose not…”

Finally, the tension left Noctis’ shoulders and he let out a sigh of his own.

And then he started laughing.

“Pffffft…!”

“Noct…”

“I can’t…I can’t fucking believe…! _This_ is what you were doing?” He clutched his stomach and laughed harder. Ignis only stood and watched silently, clearly accepting that this was probably the best response he’d get.

“Oh my gods, I love you,” Noctis managed to choke out between spells of laughter.

“Good to know I have your acceptance.”

A small grin from the prince then. “Always.”

Ignis returned the expression, decidedly happy with the outcome despite the bumpy road that had led up to it.

“Unless you actually plan on wearing spandex though. Then I’m kicking you out.”

“…I’ll keep that in mind.”


End file.
